Eating Our Way Around the World: German Pretzels, Berliners and Schneckens

On a recent vacation, we dropped by Germany for a few minutes and bought a pretzel. Seriously. We arrived at the Basel airport an hour before we had to return our rental car. A mere kilometer or two from the German border, we thought “Why not?” So we drove from France into Germany without so much as a pause for a passport check.

The question at that point was how to make the most of our 30 minutes in a country we’d never visited. There were no apparent historical sites or cultural treasures in the vicinity. Not even cute a cute little shop or cafe to be found. So we did what any normal person would do. We pulled into a grocery store parking lot. Thrilling, I know. I figured that if we wanted  to experience the flavor of a country, we needed to actually taste something!

The second we entered that grocery store, my senses confirmed the wisdom of our decision. Lo and behold, we were greeted by the heavenly aroma of freshly-baked  breads and pastries. Each selection looked better than the next. The clock was ticking, so we quickly had several tempting selections wrapped to go and muttered a garbled attempt at “danke sahr.” We zipped through the rest of the store in record time, booked it back to the airport and made it to the car rental agency with at least 10 minutes to spare. Once we finally reached our departure gate, we sat down and divided our loot.

First up: soft pretzels. I’m not talking about Auntie Annie’s here. I’m talking about real, authentic German pretzels. For their golden brown crust and tender insides, I’d give them a five out of five stars, though one of my sons did point out that it had “really big salt.” (Here’s a great article on the pretzel’s origins: The Pretzel’s Twisted History)

Next up: Berliners. These raspberry jelly-filled doughnuts were delicious, though I found them a little too sweet for my taste. Four out of five very sticky stars. (For a description and recipe, try this Food Gourmet article.)

Last but certainly not least: Schneckens. First of all, shcnecken is just flat out fun to say. Try it. Out loud. The word means “snail,” and refers to the pastry’s snail-shell shape. Second of all, this heavenly little dessert will change the way you think of cinnamon rolls, one flaky bite at a time. 6 out of 5 stars. (Here’s a picture: schnecken )

Yes, I know you can’t reduce the cultural, linguistic and historic heritage of a country to a bag of pastries. Or a 20 minute stop at a grocery store. That aside, I’d just like to say, “Danke sahr, Germany! Thank you for being delicious.”